The Match-Up: Director Christopher Nolan’s grown-up adaptation of DC’s Darknight Detective closes out with a trilogy-ending juggernaut. Marvel’s Friendly Neighborhood Web-Slinger, on the other hand, launches a ground-up reboot with The Social Network’s Andrew Garfield taking over for Tobey Maguire. The Dark Knight took in more than $1 billion worldwide. Spider-Man 3, on the other hand, left a bad taste in a lot of viewers’ mouths. Do people really want to see Spider-Man’s origin story again? Probably not.The Winner: Batman

The Match-Up: Both of these CGI cartoon series are getting a bit long in the tooth. Both pulled in just under $200 million domestically on their last releases. Both boast all-star voice talent. So far, this is looking like a tie. But DreamWorks has done a better job of keeping its Madagascar franchise fresh in viewers’ minds with a TV show (“The Penguins of Madagascar”), video games and more. By a nose, it’s ...The Winner: Madagascar

The Match-Up: Which bow-wielding hero will reign supreme? OK, this one’s a bit of an unfair fight, pitting a studly superspy against a little red-haired girl. The Avengers has already joined the billion dollar club, making it virtually unbeatable this summer. However, Avengers star Jeremy Renner will be stripped of his bow for The Bourne Legacy in August. Still, he looks pretty bad-ass there too. Brave, being a Pixar movie, will make plenty of money. But so will The Bourne Legacy. Jeremy’s looking strong (if a bit like a bully) in this fight.The Winner: Hawkeye.

The Match-Up: Two time-tested militaristic toys go head-to-head. Mattel’s G.I. Joe became an action figure in 1964. Milton Bradley’s Battleship became a board game in 1967. Joe’s got multiple toy lines, several successful TV cartoons and a previous film (G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra). Granted, Rise of Cobra wasn’t all that good. But Battleship? What’s it got—other than a bunch of plastic pegs and a $35 million opening weekend? The trailer for Retaliation actually makes it look like fun. Plus, Bruce Willis climbs on board to play “Joe Colton”—that’s the official name of the original 12-inch G.I. Joe figure!The Winner: G.I. Joe

Plenty of actors have two films being released this summer (Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Alec Baldwin, Steve Carell, Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig). But good old Bruce Willis tops them all with roles in three feature films (Moonrise Kingdom, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and The Expendables 2). If you throw in the time-traveling hit man drama Looper (which hits theaters on Sept. 28), the guy logs four features. Throw in three other completed-but-not-released films (Lay the Favorite, The Cold Light of Day and Fire With Fire) and the man’s got seven films on the books for 2012. The people’s champion!

The Navajo Nation outlawed uranium mining and processing in 2005 in response to high cancer rates. Yet Larry J. King is one of many members of the tribe who are fighting plans to mine uranium from an aquifer.

State Route 15 is a remote drive with twisting switchbacks and piney mountaintop lookouts. After a full five hours, I made a right turn onto a dirt road about four miles south of the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument toward my destination, the hot springs camp.

The South Broadway Cultural Center is hosting a three-day Bollywood film festival to benefit Peacecraft, the fair trade craft store in Nob Hill. On Friday, May 25, the show starts with Satyajit Ray’s 1964 romantic drama Charulata: The Lonely Wife at 7 p.m. On Saturday, it’s the 2009 road trip comedy Three Idiots at 2 p.m. followed by another Satyajit Ray film, the 1966 movie industry drama Nayak: The Hero at 7 p.m. Things close out on Sunday with the 2010 drama My Name is Khan, about an Indian Muslim with Asperger’s who embarks on a cross-country journey to speak with President Obama. That one begins at 2 p.m. Cost of each showing is $8 per person.

Double Plow is a “Southern-fried jam band” that melds the hippy Southwestern aesthetic with blues and bluegrass. Hear it live at Marble Brewery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28. ¿Que? Studio will be hosting an eclectic showcase from 1 to 8 p.m. (also on the bill is The Great Depression, Red Light Cameras, Vertigo Venus, Mrdrbrd and Temporary Tattoos). Food trucks and barbecue will be present, body painting and raffles will ensue. In observation of Double Plow's observation of the holiday, we asked singer Dwayne "Buzzard" Norris to put his music library on shuffle. Below are the random results.

DJ Caterwaul’s Low Life—an evening of garage, psychedelic and fine punk varietals—always comes with a good flyer. Notice the skeletons and greasy space/aquatic creature. Hear the music that goes with these images on Thursday, May 24, beginning at 9 p.m., or every second and fourth Thursday at Blackbird Buvette, 509 Central NW, for free. (JCC)

John Chervinsky's Frames of Referenceis an exquisite contemplation on the interplay between scientific principles and their worldly manifestations. In one of the series' subsets, Studio Physics, the Harvard applied physics professor went to great lengths for his final photographic prints. Chervinsky set up studio still lifes, then photographed portions of them. He mailed those photos to a painting factory in China and incorporated the reproductions of his photos by anonymous artists back into the still lifes. Elements of decay (a bowl of rotten bananas half covered by a painted “before” version of the ripe fruit) exhibit the enigma of impermanence in a visually straightforward way.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): "My soul is a fire that suffers if it doesn't burn," said Jean Prevost, a writer and hero of the French Resistance during World War II. "I need three or four cubic feet of new ideas every day, as a steamboat needs coal." Your soul may not be quite as blazing as his, Aries, and you may normally be able to get along fine with just a few cubic inches of new ideas per day. But I expect that in the next three to four weeks, you will both need and yearn to generate Prevost-type levels of heat and light. Please make sure you're getting a steady supply of the necessary fuel.